A Part of the Minority
by CountersuJesstion
Summary: 5 Seconds of Summer. The boys are just starting out, it's their first gig in two days and Calum's on his way back from England. He is sat next to a fan on every flight from England to Australia, but she doesn't realise it. She's too busy contending with her new older sister and her sister's stupid friends.
1. Chapter 1

I love taking flights on my own. No one else to worry about, just me and my stuff, music blasting through my headphones. My favourite flights to take are the ones with barely any people on them because, even if their allocated seat is next to yours, they won't sit in it if they don't have to.

This was not one of those flights. I was one of the first to get on and already there were screaming children and complaining ancients. There was no way I was putting up with this shit for twenty five hours. It was possible that some of them weren't going all the way back to Sydney with me, but even so, some of them could be flying to Dubai after our change over in London. A whole hour (well, just over) of at least six children crying – no thank you – I'd just suffered through a week of kids moaning and yelling constantly for my cousin's 5th birthday. Technically speaking, it was tomorrow, but my band had its first gig in two days and I couldn't miss it, so my parents let me go home early.

Trying my best to tune out the people on the plane, I turned my attention to the people walking onto it and wondered who I was gonna be sat with. Thanks to the randomly allocated seating, I was sat in the middle if the row, meaning I would have a stranger on either side of me. I was kind of spacing at the door, not really paying attention to anything – until I heard the excited shrieks of a group of girls on their first holiday together. I watched as they came through, one-by-one, glancing behind them as they continued to shriek and giggle. It wasn't cold out, but it wasn't exactly warm either, even so, each of these girls was dressed as if they were going out in Barbados, or somewhere equally as warm; tight, short skirts or dresses, thin jackets, plunging necklines, chemically flattened hair trailing down their backs, and ridiculously high wedge sandals. Don't get me wrong, they were hot and I wasn't opposed to looking at them (especially since their attire didn't really cover them), but I still thought it was ridiculous. I couldn't help but watch them as they tottered down the plane searching for their seats, praying they would be sat near each other.

They were. They were also sat near me, one of them was sat on the aisle side of my central seat. She was sat down for all of two seconds before she stood back up – _great_ I thought, _this isn't going to be annoying at all._ Resolutely staring at the back of the chair in front of me, I could feel eyes on me. After sliding mine sideways, I realised why she had stood up. A girl in black, ripped skinny jeans and a black and red flannel, her hair roped back in a ponytail, was stood next to her trying to get to her window seat. I stood up and muttered an apology as she passed me, feeling like a complete idiot.

"S'okay." She mumbled, her black and white Vans backpack catching my shoulder as she swung it off.

Once we'd all sat back down, she reached into the backpack and pulled out headphones and an iPod. I was already regretting my decision to leave mine in my suitcase – a decision based on _'It's only an hour flight, how bad could it be?'_

I wouldn't put that on until they've done the safety briefing if I were you." I said to her.

A smile fluttered across her lips as she nodded in, (what I hoped was), thanks, before she turned to stare out of the widow.

"Luce…Luce!" the blonde girl on my right called. "Can you just prod her for her me? I'd do it myself, but I'm sort of falling out of this top as it is," she wasn't wrong; I was kinda disappointed she hadn't leaned over me actually.

I prodded the girl on my left near the top of her arm. Her head snapped round and I gestured to the blonde.

"What?" said Luce.

"I just wanted to offer you a Werther's for take-off, you don't need to bite my head off" replied the blonde.

"Oh, yeah, thanks, sorry." Luce answered, reaching across me for the sweet.

Looking at them, I hadn't realised they even knew each other, let alone were together. Listening to them, I noticed that the blonde was American and Luce was English. As the plane sped up, they both popped the sweets into their mouths and Luce put her headphones on. I glanced at her iPod as she played the music and grinned – she was listening to 5 Seconds of Summer, my band. She locked the screen and resumed staring out of the window


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note: So this chapter is super long because I didn't really know where to end it, sorry about that :/ Also, I have no idea what the inside of Heathrow airport loos like, so I apologise.**

As we neared Heathrow airport, I was asked to get Luce's attention again. She was handed another Werther's and packed up her headphones and iPod.

I'm not even remotely exaggerating when I say that the plane was packed full to bursting and it was absolute hell to get off. I could see the look of sheer terror on Luce's face as she balked at the volume of people exiting the plane. The blonde and her friends had no trouble being let out of their seats – probably due to their clothing, or lack thereof. I saw an opening in the steady stream of people moving past our row, and was about to fill it, when I remembered Luce. Reaching behind me, I grabbed her wrist and pulled her out with me – she would never have got off the plane if I hadn't. By some miracle, the girls she was with had waited for her to one side of the stairs leading off the plane. She nodded her thanks and wandered off, her right hand clutching her upper left arm, trailing behind them.

Maybe I was wrong, but she looked to be younger than them, except she definitely wasn't related to them, so that just left friends – which all in all seemed very unlikely – and that left me wondering. Turning my attention to the conveyor belt, I only just managed to grab my bag before it went another full cycle. I checked my schedule for the next flight. Dubai was a whole seven hours away, crikey, I hoped the seats were comfier on this plane. Before checking my bag in, I pulled my headphones out of it and stuffed them into my back duffel bag to take onto the plane. It's the first time I've been in this airport – on the way over we stopped in Gatwick, so it takes me a while to find the right gate, but when I do I hear the unmistakeable sound of over-excited girls screeching at each other. My heart gasps as it hopes for the ones from the last flight, because that means Luce is with them. It feels strange thinking of her as Luce when I don't even know her. She doesn't know my name, but here I am calling her by her nickname; in my head, of course.

As the waiting area comes into view, the evidence catches up with my imagination. I see the blonde standing in front of her friends as they take a selfie. I scan the surrounding area and find the girl I'm looking for sat cross legged on the floor a few feet away from them, and the rest of the waiting crowd. Avoiding her 'friends', I move to sit with her, trying not to make it look like I'm walking with purpose. Not that it matters, since she's the only one who'll get creeped out by it and she's busy staring at her phone (at least I think it's her phone). As I got closer, I realised it was a DS and began to wonder what she was playing on it; she seemed like an Animal CrossingTM kind of girl to me.

By the time I'd made my meandering tour of the seating area, I was coming up behind her and could see that she was playing Mario KartTM. Did I say playing? I meant smashing Mario KartTM – she was killing it. Letting the duffel slide off my shoulder onto the floor, I sat down next to her, bringing my knees up and resting my arms on them. We just kind of sat there like that for a while as I watched her demolish the computer animated characters in all the races, even Rainbow Road.

"You're awesome." I said to her. "At the game, I mean."

"Thanks." She mumbled, that flutter of a smile flashing across her lips again.

"I'm Calum, by the way. I was sat between you and your blonde friend on the way here."

"She's not my friend." Luce looked up at me, then back down her game as she customised her kart.

"Then why'd she offer you a sweet? And how does she does she know your name?" I pressed.

"She just shrugged and busied herself packing the DS back into her backpack. Once she finished, her eyes slid sideways and she caught one side of her bottom lip between her teeth.

"She's my stepsister." She sighed. "Her dad married my mum, she and her friends were going to Australia and her dad paid for me to go with them because I'm 'responsible'." She placed air quotes around the word 'responsible'.

Australia?! This was awesome – it meant I could be sat next to a fan for twenty five hours and she didn't even know it!

"You're older than her? You don't look older." I blurted out.

"I'm not. She's just stupid." She shifted in her seat and hugged her knees to her chest, resting her chin on them. I could tell that she was uncomfortable, for half a second I thought that she recognised me but was too afraid to say – but then I thought about the way she was on the plane and realised that she was just a nervous person. Now that I thought about it, she might even have had social anxiety – all be it mild. She was just like Luke when I first met him, so I backed off. I stayed seated on the floor, but I didn't say anything else – even though I wanted to tell her who I was. If I did it would seem so out of the blue since she didn't know that I had seen her song selection.

We sat like that until I decided I absolutely _had_ to know where she was sitting. Without looking at her I said

"So where are you sitting?"

She brought her head up from her knees and muttered something that didn't quite catch. Now I turned to look at her, my eyebrows squashed into a slight frown.

"Next to a window." She must have repeated herself because I could hear the exasperation in her voice.

"My seat is 67H." I said, trying to prise her out her shell.

Her eyes widened and then flicked back down to the ground.

"Please tell me you're sat next to me. I don't think I could stand seven hours next to a stranger." I pleaded, trying to just push her out of the comfort zone she'd found.

She reached into her pocket and handed me a piece a paper. I unfolded it to find that it was her boarding pass, and that it said she was sat in seat 67J.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: So I'd kind of planned to update every day during summer holidays, then I got stuck part way through this chapter and started reading other fics (I recommend pretty much anything written by 5SecondsofFreedom on Watt Pad) and then I had a work placement which made me super tired and stuff, but now that's finished and I managed to write this chapter.**

 **Also, WARNING there are swears (not many, but they are there).**

Our flight was called and I stood up, holding my hand out to help Luce do the same. She didn't take it. Instead she pushed herself up off her knees and swung her bag onto her shoulders, heading towards the gate. As she walked away, she glanced back and smiled quickly at me, so I bent and collected my duffel before following her.

She walks fast. Like as fast as I do – and she's about a foot shorter than me. She walked even faster up the stairs to the plane, taking them two at a time despite the length of her legs hindering her somewhat. Within five minutes of the flight call, we were sat in our seats in a comfortable silence. This time I was prepared and had pulled my headphones out of the end pocket of my bag, but she hadn't done the same, so I left them sat on my lap. Just as I was debating putting them on, she spoke.

"I'm Lucy, by the way. I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier." She seemed to have been debating what to say for a while. "Feel free to call me whatever name you'd like, everyone else does." Her tone turned sour as she finished the sentence.

"Do you prefer to be called Lucy?" I asked.

"Yeah" she muttered.

"Then that's what I'll call you." I decided.

The smile that had fluttered across her lips so faintly twice before reappeared, this time pulling into a full blown grin. One which she quickly put away when she noticed me seeing it. Maybe it wasn't because of me – she was looking over my shoulder at something happening behind me. I turned to follow her gaze and found the blonde was making her way over to us, a sly smile on her face, her eyebrows doing some kind of ritual dance.

"Want a Werther's?" she asked, proffering the bag to Lucy. "Take two so I don't have to come back later."

 _Cow_.

"You want some Calum?" Lucy asked me.

This caused the eyebrows on the blonde to resume their dance, but I took a couple anyway. Once I had done, she didn't leave, she just kinda stood there staring at Lucy.

"You can go now Brit." Lucy said, as though talking to a servant.

The blonde – Brit – looked offended, though I wasn't sure if it was because of the comment or the nickname. As she turned away, the grin returned to Lucy's face and, as soon as she was out of earshot, a laugh escaped Lucy's lips.

"She'll be telling all her friends about you now. How you've chosen me over her and 'What the fuck is he thinking?' And they'll agree with her like the lemmings they are and join in the bitching session, forgetting that they were originally bitching about you and bitch about me instead." She shook her head, laughing quietly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to dump all that on you – I barely know you."

"Eh, people seem to like talking to me, apparently I'm a nice guy." _What. Did. I. Just. Say?_ I don't want to sound like I'm flirting with her, I'll put her off talking to me.

"So it would seem." She murmured.

I don't think I was supposed to hear that.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's note: This one's kinda short because I want to get into the actual story now (and I'm bored of writing about Airplanes) (** _ **cut through the clouds/ like angels can fly**_ **). Also, I'm probably just gonna use all of their songs, even though this is supposed to be before they were famous – I'm sorry, it just didn't feel right sticking to just their really early stuff and covers.**

 **WARNING: mild swears**

We were most of the way through our flight, and it was pitch black outside. Most people's shutters were pulled down, but not ours. Lucy had left it open as she continued to listen to my band's music and stare out of the window. I pulled my headphones off and placed them on the seat as I stood up to use the bathroom. I hate plane bathrooms – they're so small – so I was as quick as I could be. When I returned to my seat, I could hear someone speaking quietly, which was weird because I thought they were all asleep. As I listened more, I realised it was Lucy, and she was singing along to ' _Hearts Upon Our Sleeve'_. Not wanting her to stop, I put my headphones into my ears without playing any music and just listened to her, a grin slowly spreading across my face. Even though she didn't recognise me, it didn't matter, because in that moment she was fulfilling a dream of the entire band – she was singing one of our songs.

The seatbelt sign came on and I nudged her. Her head snapped round and I could see the panic in her face at the sudden touch. Panic which subsided when she realised where she was and who had prodded her. I pointed to the light above us that dictated her next move. She paused the song and pulled her headphones off, wrapping the cord round her iPod and placing the lot into her bag.

"Werther's" she reminded, as we began our descent.

They hadn't waited for her this time, so she stuck with me as I made a path through the crowds leaving the plane to collect their luggage.

"Not a fan of crowds?" I asked as we sat waiting for the flight that would take us to Sydney

"No. Brit knows it too, she's supposed to wait for me. That girl can make a path."

"I'll bet." There was no denying the girl was hot, even if she was an absolute bitch.

We were on our final flight, next stop Sydney. Next stop home. No screaming kids, no complaining old people (they were all asleep), just me and Lucy and music. I glanced over to find that her backpack had been shoved straight under the seat – nothing had been taken out of it. Instead, she reached into her pocket and handed me some of the contents. More butterscotch flavoured sweets were stored in there – it must have been the reason she was so long at the toilet earlier. She flashed me a grin when she saw my brain process the information.

"What? You thought I was gonna let her get away with being nosey again?" she said, mock surprise in her voice.

And that's how we got talking. In the thirteen hours we had to kill, I learned that Brit –or Britney – was a spoiled rich girl who could do no wrong in her father's eyes; that Brit's dad was a sort of music producer who met Lucy's mum at a charity event she was hosting; that Lucy's dad had died ten years ago, when she was 7, and she had been trying to get her mum to see other guys for three years before she met Brit's dad; that they were apparently so in love it had only taken three months for Brian (Brit's dad); and that Lucy hated almost everything the situation, except that, for whatever reason, her mum was happy.

In return I told her that my dad was Scottish and my mum was a New Zealander, but I was Aussie through and through; that my best mates were called Luke, Mikey and Ash; that I loved music; and that I played bass guitar. I gave her every clue I could without directly telling her who I was, but she still didn't connect the dots. She still didn't realise that she was sitting next to one of the people singing on the tracks she was listening to. We even shared my headphones at one point – hers were on-ear and mine in-ear – to listen to a selection of her favourite songs, many of which were 5 Seconds of Summer.

I had my head rested on my hand, and suddenly the music was ripped from ear. My elbow had slipped off the arm rest, taking my head with it but not the headphone.

"Oh God!" Lucy exclaimed. "Don't fall asleep, I need you awake to keep me awake – I forgot to take my contacts out."

"Challenge accepted." I grinned at her.

Mostly we talked about music, but some other stuff too. I even got her to sing with me. And finally, we arrived in Sydney.

 **Just a side note: If you're reading feel free to let me know and I'll, like, talk to you and stuff…. … If you want me to.**


	5. Chapter 5

**WARNING: mild swears (kind of)**

"I think I'm gonna have to sleep for a week!" Lucy said to me as we waited for our bags.

"Don't do that, you'll wake up and they'll have left you behind!" I joked

"True enough." She chuckled.

I'm not sure if girls chuckle, but she definitely didn't giggle and it was too soft to be a full-blown laugh.

"LUCE!" An American voice called from across the room. We both turned to see Brit and her entourage motioning for Lucy to join them. "It's time to leave your boyfriend now so we can babysit you for 4 weeks." She continued.

The lightness was sapped from Lucy's eyes, and her face turned a peculiarly similar shade of puce to my own. Grabbing her luggage, she hurried away, shoving her headphones on as she went. Once I'd exited the airport myself, I scanned the car park for my mates. Eventually, I found them sat on Ash's car bonnet, looking bored as hell. Luke was the first one to see me and leaped off the car to pull me into a huge bear hug.

"Thought you were never going to get here mate." Said Ash, a sly smile on his face.

"Well, you would park in the Outback." I shot back.

We loaded my stuff into the boot of the car, Mikey calling shotgun and immediately blasting Green Day's _'Know Your Enemy'_ from the album ' _21st Century Breakdown'_. As ' _See the Light'_ ended, Mikey switched albums to _¡Tré!_ – Green Day was all Ash kept in his car. It took until ' _Drama Queen'_ for his nosiness to get the better of him.

"So, meet anyone interesting?" Mikey asked, his eyebrows wiggling.

I hesitated before answering, a slight blush creeping up my neck.

"Funny you should say that…" I told them all about Lucy and Brit and everything that had happened, saving the best part till last. "…Lucy's a fan of ours." I finished.

Mikey had completely turned off the music and they all gaped at me.

"Why wasn't that the first thing you said?" Ash came out of his [shock-induced] trance first.

"Shock factor, bro." I replied. "Green light." I said, as confusion broke out on Ash's face at the angry bloke behind us smacking his car horn.

"Oh no." he said, never one to swear, pulling off as fast as he could.

Mikey reached to turn the music back on, but ultimately left it off because Luke opened his mouth, deciding he didn't have enough information.

"Did you tell her? Did she recognise you? Where in Sydney is she staying? You should've invited her to the gig. Wait – did you invite her? OhMyGod, did you invite her to rehearsals? Did you give her your phone number? Did she give you hers? Did she ask for yours?" The questions came out in a stream of words, sounding extra Australian since it was Luke, and I'd been hearing mostly English accents for a while.

When he paused for breath, I cut him off and began to answer the questions I thought I'd heard.

"Ok, just hold there for a second Luke – I can't retain all of those questions if you bombard me with more. Right: No I didn't tell her, she didn't recognise me, I don't know where she's staying, I didn't ask, no, but you're right I should've invited her, of course not that's a terrible idea, and finally, no phone numbers were exchanged. I literally met her a day ago, I didn't want to scare her off."

Luke prepared more questions, this time asked at a pace that allowed Mikey and Ash to listen too. This continued until we reached Luke's house, with Mikey chipping in a couple of times to ask the kind of inane questions that only he could ask, and Green Day playing quietly in the background. As much as I wanted to just go to sleep, we had to rehearse. I nearly texted mum and dad to tell them I was gonna be late for tea, but then remembered I was staying with Luke since they were still in England. Jumping out of the car, I went to get my stuff from Ash's boot, only to find it wouldn't open.

"Um, Ash?" I said. "I sorta need my stuff from the boot."

Ash giggled and grinned sheepishly at me, unlocking the car as he did so. I dragged my bags up to Luke's room and made my way to the back room downstairs where we rehearsed. We ran through a few songs and finalised the set list for the next day's gig, then Ash and Mikey left. I told Luke that I really needed to sleep if I was gonna be in any kind of shape to play tomorrow, so he set up an airbed on the floor of his room for me. I stripped down to my boxers and laid down, passing out within thirty seconds of doing so.

 **P.S. bonnet = hood**

 **boot = trunk**

 **airbed = air mattress**

 **(In case you were wondering)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: Let's just put a BLANKET WARNING over the rest of the story for 'MILD SWEARS', and if they get worse I'll let you know.**

* * *

The periodic dull thud I was ignoring as I tried to extract the last remnants of sleep from the night failed to cease, so I opened my eyes to discover the source of the irritation. Only to find that it was Luke, thwacking my head with a pillow. I reached my hand out as Luke swung back for another hit.

"Bro! What the hell?" I yelled, as Luke shifted his aim to avoid my outstretched hand. "What are you _doing_?"

"Nothing else I tried would wake you up." He grinned.

I got the sense that he hadn't tried very hard before finding this solution. Glancing at the clock, my eyes widened. I hadn't realised I was that tired, it was almost the afternoon. It transpired that Luke needed me up about two hours ago, because the guys had planned to rehearse and then go to the beach before the gig that night. Due to my being awake for almost a whole twenty four hours, I'd kinda ruined the plan that I wasn't aware existed, and Mikey was _not_ happy. They'd had all on convincing him to go to the beach at all, and had only managed it by arranging a rehearsal beforehand. Now he had the perfect excuse for us not to go, and it was completely my fault. Luke and Ash just stared at me, silently imploring me to come up with something. We all knew we'd already over-rehearsed, but Mikey was apparently oblivious. He just wanted it to be perfect, but didn't think of the possibility that we could peak too soon.

I tried my best to explain this to Michael, but to no avail. There was only one solution that would even remotely please us all – take the stuff to the beach. Upon glancing at Luke and Ash, I found that we'd all come to the same conclusion: there was no way in hell Mikey would agree to this. But we were under a time constraint…


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: I wanted to do the entire thing from Cal's POV, but I just couldn't get this scenario out of my head, and Cal wouldn't know any of this so, yeah, here's a chapter from Lucy's POV. I hope this kinda makes sense as I carry on. The last chapter was really short because I don't like switching POV within chapters, so I made this a new chapter.**

* * *

🎧 ** _Lucy_** 🎧

Never one for gentle awakenings, Brit was shaking me and yelling my name in my ear. Apparently we were going to be late. I'm not sure how someone can be late to the beach, especially when they have nothing else to do, but that was Brit all over. I'd fallen asleep in the clothes I'd been travelling in, only just remembering to remove my contacts beforehand. I'd never been so exhausted in my life; it was a combination of not sleeping because I didn't have the guts to remove my contacts on the plane(or in between flights) and that guy – Calum, I think – sitting next to me insisting on talking to me. Introversion caused exhaustion any time I had to socialise for an extended period of time, but I couldn't just not talk to the guy – he was trying really hard to be my friend (though I'm not sure why). Throwing on my 5 Seconds of Summer racer back vest top, I grabbed a snapback and my backpack, leaving my glasses and contacts in the room. The look on Brit's face as I joined them said it all; horror and disgust radiated from her and her tone matched the expression on her face.

"You're _not_ going like _that_ " she sneered.

"But I thought we were going to be late?" turning up the whine and throwing in a pout for good measure, I could sense the held in guffaws and grins from her friends.

She turned on her heel, sighing in frustration, entourage in tow, and off we went. It was a short walk to the beach – the hotel had been chosen specifically for it – so it wasn't long before we were setting up our own section of beach with the chairs and towels that had been brought. Luckily for me, Brit had the foresight to pack a towel of mine in her beach bag, so I wasn't just sat on the sand. Maybe she wasn't all bad.

"What are you _doing_? Get the hell off my towel." She screeched.

I stand corrected.

"It's mine." I had been handed a dark grey towel with a heart eyes skull with wings on it, had unfolded it, laid it on the sand, and was now sitting cross-legged on it.

"It was. Now I need it. One for keeping me off the ground, one for drying myself if I get wet, and one for using as a pillow."

"You don't need _three_ towels. Since when did you go in the sea? Won't it mess up your make up?" I remained seated.

This time I was ignored, Brit had found that it was easier to just stop arguing when she couldn't defend herself because I was much smarter than her and could think much quicker. I had placed the towel behind some chairs so that I was in their shadow, in an effort to keep a little bit cooler in the Australian heat. Trying to read, all I could hear was the inane chatter of girls with nothing interesting to say, so I pulled on my headphones and escaped to the sanctuary that was 5 Seconds of Summer. I never had to turn the volume too high, I could just listen to them and tune out everything else, especially the squawk of Brit and her friends.

Which is probably why I ended up with a small pray bottle of bug spray being thrown at my head. Ripping my headphones out of the jack on my iPod and tugging them down to my neck, I looked at Brit. It didn't matter who had thrown the bug spray, it would be Brit that needed to talk to me – it always was.

"Turn your dork music down, we can hear it."

I could hear it still, but I knew it couldn't be me because I'd pulled the headphones put which automatically paused the music.

"Brit, I've just turned it off to talk to you."

"Clearly not because I can still hear it."

Handing her my iPod as proof that it was no longer playing music, I strained my ears in an attempt to locate the source of the sound. Someone else on the beach was listening to 5SOS. Out loud. I had to find them, I'm not sure why – it's not usually my style – but instinct seemed to tell me I had to know who it was. It could even be the guy from the plane (I'm almost certain his name was Calum). Supposing that anything was better than Brit and her friends, I stood and began to walk away. She only asked where I was going so that it would seem like she was trying, even though our parents wouldn't know if she wasn't. Leaving my backpack on the towel, my stuff spilling out of it, so nothing would be moved, I wandered off in the general direction of the music. It took me a while to gage the exact direction it was coming from, but that just meant less time spent with Brit and her minions.

As I walked closer to the sea, a slight breeze picked up making it cooler than sitting at the top of the beach; something which made me very grateful since I didn't handle heat well. Why was I on this trip again? Oh, right, because Brian decided his twenty-year-old daughter and her three twenty-year-old friends couldn't handle a four week trip to Australia without an extremely introverted seventeen year old to 'keep them in line'. What kind of father doesn't trust his daughter to the extent that he paid for a girl three years younger than her to chaperone?

The music was getting louder, and I recognised it as _Lost Boy_. As I got closer, I recognised the unmistakeable sound of acoustic guitars. This was odd – I was almost certain _Lost Boy_ hadn't been released as an acoustic track, but maybe I'd just missed it. Before I'd had too long to think about it, the song ended. Remaining in place, I waited for another one to start, and my mind began to wander. If it really _was_ that guy from the plane, what would I say? Wouldn't it be weird if he was playing 5SOS on the off chance that I heard it because he actually _wanted_ to talk to me? I suppose that is he had really wanted to keep talking to me, he would have asked for my phone number. He wouldn't have taken it with him though, I wouldn't have let him. Still not sure what I would have said if he had asked for it, I noticed that _Gotta Get Out_ had started playing. This one I knew had been released as an acoustic version, further convincing me that I had simply missed the acoustic _Lost Boy_.

I neared the source of the sound and caught a glimpse of smurf blue hair. My heart jumped – Michael Clifford from 5SOS had that exact hair right now. It couldn't be them, could it? They did live in Sydney, but it couldn't be them. I could never be that lucky.


	8. Chapter 8

**🎶 Calum**

A small crowd had gathered as we started playing and, even if they didn't know who we were, they were happy enough to listen and applaud; some of them even danced a bit. We didn't bother with any covers, since this was a good opportunity to get our music out there.

As we reached the end of Lost Boy, I saw a girl wandering about further down the beach, glancing from side to side as though she were looking for something. She stopped walking just as we finished playing, her eyes fixed on something far left. The small crowd had seemingly become bored as we eventually settled on Gotta Get Out and they began to disperse as we started playing. Now that I had a better view of the beach, I could see that the girl hadn't moved through all of this, and that she had (what I assumed was) a band logo on her shirt. The chorus picked up and her head twisted to face us. It took her about thirty seconds, but she seemed to recognise at least one of us; it was probably Mikey since his hair was currently smurf blue. Hesitantly, she made her way towards us. As she did so, her shirt came into focus and I could see the design on it was actually our logo. The new and improved version. When we decided to create one, it was pretty simple - just a tally followed by SOS. Ashton had tweeted it out and asked if the few fans we had any better ideas. At that point a girl had tweeted us a photo of one she'd drawn up which was a skull in a sort of graffiti/brush stroke style and it looked amazing. She had given it heart eyes and coloured them in red and written 5 Seconds of Summer along the curved top of the skull. It was a mix of both that was used, but we didn't have any merch so her shirt had to be homemade - which made it even more awesome.

Wait, is that? It couldn't be. Is that Lucy? She had the same long, dark hair that was pulled back into a ponytail; only this time strands of her hair were pulled out of it haphazardly. The strands fluttered about in the breeze as she desperately tried to push them out of her face. Her pace picked up now she had located us and I could see that she was grinning. The closer she came the more sure I was that it was Lucy, so I nudged Luke and nodded in her direction. His eyebrows shot up and a sly smile began to spread across his face. He stopped playing and stood up, walking over to Michael and Ashton and whispering something in their ears. The girl - I was now certain she was Lucy - frowned, but kept walking towards us. Luke, Mikey and Ash started playing and I cringed.

"Really guys?" I asked, hiding my steadily reddening face behind my hands.

Luke's wicked grin widened as he began singing and the girl froze, flicking her head from side to side. Her eyes widened in shock as she realised they were singing for her. This was going to be so awkward if it wasn't Lucy - well, even more awkward. Luke, in his infinite seventeen-year-old wisdom, had decided to play I Can't Remember as Lucy approached.

"OhMyGod! Calum? I am such an idiot." her face had also gone bright red. So she had just realised exactly who she was sat next to on the plane.

"Where's the stepsister from hell?" asked Mikey.

Lucy darted forward and hit me on the arm, then buried her head in her hands. I heard her say, what sounded like, "You told them?", but I wasn't sure.

"So? Where is she? I heard she's got massive boobs." Mikey smirked at her.

"She's about two miles in that direction." Lucy answered, her face still flushed as she gestured behind her. "I'm not sure she'd appreciate you going to find her specifically to look at her boobs, though." a wan smile drifted across her lips as she presumably imagined that situation.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: Ugh. Personal statement writing is the worst. Procrastination for the WIN!**

* * *

 **🎧 Lucy**

Apparently I really was that lucky, luckier in fact, since I'd made friends with Calum FRICKIN Hood on my way over. Looking at them now, I can't believe I didn't recognise him. I had twenty five hours and I still didn't realise. I actually am stupid. I'm also not completely convinced Michael was joking about going to find Brit. That would have been really funny to watch, just picturing her face made me smile. It was tempting... But I couldn't do that. Even Brit knew they were on their way to the top and would not hesitate to sleep with any of them, even if they were three years younger than her.

"Sooo, we're doing a gig tonight." Calum's voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Um, yeah, I know." I replied through awkward laughter. They didn't need to know I stalked them on every social media platform they had.

"So you're coming?!" Asked Luke in the manner of an excited puppy

"Well, I thought about it, but Brit and her friends won't want to come." It was the truth. Id actually asked them if we could go and there had been an immediate and resounding no, followed by some comment about 'dork music' and how they didn't want to get infected.

"So?" Luke's bottom lip jutted out as he took on the exact facial expression of a guilty puppy.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Calum's face turn downcast. Obviously Luke hadn't been told about, (or just didn't understand), the Brit situation that meant we were simultaneously babysitting each other. Calum and, after I caught his eye, Ashton had read between the lines and seen the truth of it. But Michael and Luke remained clueless, trying to make sense of it. I knew they all desperately wanted me to go, because then they knew for certain there would be one person at the venue. And how cool would it be to be able to say I'd been to their very first gig? It just wasn't going to happen though, I'd never get it past Brit.

"If she knew you were with us..." Michael trailed off, finally realising the situation, and deciding fighting me in this would be futile.

Luke, on the other hand, still hadn't quite grasped it and proceeded to suggest they come with me to get my stuff and I could hang with them for the rest of the day. Including going to the gig. It seemed worthless to argue the point because [1] I was already freaking out over having just been 100% accepted as their friend and [2] all four of us had already tried to explain it and he just wasn't getting it.

So off I went, four Aussie boys and their instruments in tow, to collect my backpack and run away from my problems.


End file.
